No Other Way
by Quen-celebrin
Summary: Mytho's thoughts and feelings as he decides to shatter his own heart... again. Includes backstory from the Prinz und Rabe timeline.


My hands on my sword do not shake. I have a plan. Lohengrin and Tutu know what to do when my heart is shattered. They will not fail me.

I fall.

* * *

><p>It is shameful to admit it, but it would be even more shameful not to. I am afraid. The cuts on my body hurt only because I know that the next cut could be the last thing I feel. The Crow is no weaker now, and I am no stronger. My body is, perhaps, but my mind and heart are reeling. Lohengrin is gone—my dearest friend gone—and Tutu... That is too painful to think of now.<p>

Each swordstroke fends off defeat a little longer, but I am no fool. I know I cannot win. Only one choice is left to me.

I tremble. I remember those dark days, and now I _feel_ their pain. The memories cut like ice. Yet once again I must shatter my own heart. At least I can protect my people, though no one now will be able to save _me._

"Cursed Crow, prepare to be sealed away once more!" My voice shakes though I meant it to be defiant.

"_No,_ _don't_!" Tutu screams, still here with me in spite of everything. That confuses me, and comforts me, and hurts me all at once. She knows what will happen, but she does not hesitate. "Please don't do this again! Siegfried, _I love you_!" She vanishes as if she had never existed. So my words hold.

Now I see that perhaps she did love me. Not as she once did, but my heart aches one last time as I forgive her. Too late, too late. Everything I do is useless.

I have no right to delay any more. I have lost both of them now. And if my heart is this weak, then I deserve to lose that as well.

The Crow laughs as again my own sword pierces my heart. I wish it would kill me.

* * *

><p>"There's no other way now." The words choke me. After everything that has been sacrificed for me, must I—? But I see no other way. My newly-restored heart shudders with pain and fear and disgust. I bow over my sword.<p>

"Here and now, I will pierce my heart once more." My voice rings with a defiance I am too weary now to feel.

"That's ridiculous!" the Crow jeers. Yes, and I am ridiculous. This time I could not even reach him. This time Rue has paid for my weakness.

As if he reads my mind, the Crow continues, "If you seal me away, the princess will also..."

_ Rue_... "No matter how many centuries pass, I will return and defeat you!" Somehow. I take a slow, steadying breath. "And after I have done that, I will end my own life and meet the princess in heaven." Nothing now sounds sweeter to me than death. I wish—

"_No_!" I hear the voice only in my mind, but at first I think across time it is Tutu's. Her name escapes my lips. But now I see the little duck flapping her wings and quacking frantically as she runs to me. I do not hear her voice again, but every feather screams out _no_. Our eyes meet, and she stops.

And then she begins to dance.

I am humbled, oh, I am humbled. When she returned the last shard of my heart and I saw that Princess Tutu had only been a duck all along, I knelt before her; now I am too ashamed to kneel. Now she has nothing—no magic, no strength, no grace. And still she fights. Even as I, a prince restored to all his power, prepare to give in once again.

As I stand transfixed the poor townsfolk poisoned with the Crow's blood attack her, tossing her on powerful wings and screeching their scorn for her strength. She quacks in dismay, but struggles still.

My fear before, in my shattered heart through the long years, my fear _now—_I see at last that it is not fear. It is cowardice. I throw myself into the air and wheel to face the Crow.

"Tutu, I won't ever give up again. I _will_ kill the Crow." My promise is for both the little duck now buffeted in a storm of crows and for the princess I once loved. "And I _will_ save Rue." But what if I am already too late? "_Rue_! Don't give in to despair! If my voice can reach you..."

She fills my thoughts like a dizzying perfume, and my heart races. After all she did I should fear her, yet we have seen each other at our worst and at—no. She has never seen me at my best. Now she never will. _No_. I see it now: _this_ moment—my strength or weakness—will be either my best or my worst.

"Rue! _Rue_!"

Once again I feel the strange sensation of recalling things I have never forgotten. Memories overwhelm me, colored now with—with tenderness. I remember the tiny girl whom I saved, and who then saved me in return, who gave me water from her own mouth when I was too weary to drink, who learned how to dance like an angel because she thought it would please me. The older girl who taught me to say I loved her because she knew I never would, who tortured my savior and poisoned my heart for fear she would lose the only person who would even _say_ he loved her. Who saw what she had done and stayed with me as first my mind and then my body became a horror.

The woman who smiled as she sacrificed herself for me.

I see her face in my mind, almost with my waking eyes. She has loved me as I have not dreamed of being loved. And I? I love her more than life, as I once loved Tutu. But even more, now—I love her more than I fear defeat and failure. She is my princess, and I _will_ bring her home.

Below me, a light bursts into life—one that I_ feel_ now for the first time in more years than I can count: "Hope!"

And now I know there is a way, and I am strong enough to take it. "In my name as Prince Siegfried, I call the princess by name!"

Because she is the most important thing to me.

"RUE~!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** This story was written for a Club-Tutu contest on deviantART (and I won Admin's choice, yay!) Here's the description I posted there:

I'm not sure how much immediate sense this makes, since the first two (and some of the third) part depend on my own backstory for the Prince, Tutu, and Lohengrin. So here's the story in short(ish)-but-sweet form.

Prince Siegfried's best friend was the knight Lohengrin, and he was engaged to the Princess Odette (lovingly nicknamed 'Tutu') when the Demon Crow attacked for the first time.

The Prince was caught by surprise and was not strong enough to defeat the Crow, so he came up with a quick plan. By shattering his heart he could seal the Crow away in order to make sure his people were safe and to give himself a chance to prepare. Though he knew he himself would lose all motivation when his heart was gone, his servants and guards would be instructed by Lohengrin to give the prince intensive training in arms.

Meanwhile Lohengrin would be with Tutu, who would seek out the shards of the Prince's heart. Because she loved him and knew his heart, only she would be able to find them. Lohengrin would go with her as a protector. (For those who are curious about the knight, he did not die in the Crow's first attack because he obeyed the prince's order not to attempt a fight with the foe far beyond his strength.)

At first all went according to plan, but as time passed it grew more difficult for Tutu to sense the heart shards. Finally she knows that only one shard is left, but has no idea where it is. As she and Lohengrin go back to the palace to consult the Prince and restore most of the heart-shards, she realizes (with the help of an impulsive kiss) that she cannot find the shard because her heart does not know the prince's anymore-and that is because she has fallen in love with Lohengrin!

By luck they happen to find the last heart shard almost at the palace gate, and Tutu restores the prince's whole heart, which is immediately broken by the betrayal of his fiancee and his best friend. In bitterness, he tells Tutu that he cannot trust her again-if she claims that she loves him, she will vanish into light. But by now the Crow has been released-and escapes from the story!

The prince, followed by Lohengrin and Tutu, pursues him. In guilt, Lohengrin rushes in and attacks the mighty raven, disobeying the prince and dying vainly in the attempt. Tutu stays.

And that's where the second part of my entry picks up.


End file.
